The rapid knocking on her front door
made Emily cringe at the thought of getting up to answer is. She'd
spent as little time as possible changing out of her work clothes and
into sweats and a tank top. Now, having just gotten comfortable in
her overstuffed armchair and starting last weeks new Lifetime movie,
she was not moving.

Besides, there was only one person that
would be at her apartment at 8:30pm on a Tuesday and he had a key. A
few seconds later she heard the keys jingle through the thin wood of
the door. They were inserted into the deadbolt and twisted, unlocking
it. Emily only half listened to the squeak of the brass knob as it
was turned, allowing entry into the apartment.

Matt poked his head into the dark
apartment, "Em? Are you here?"

She decided not to answer knowing full
well that Matt would let himself in and find his way to her.

Emily heard his heavy footsteps cross
the tile on the kitchen floor, the rustle of a plastic grocery bag
and finally the clinking of her great-grandmother's sterling
silverware.

Em turned her attention back to the
depressing movie and snuggled into her favorite down blanket. She
felt Matt walk up behind her, he didn't speak, just stood there
watching her. He placed a cool hand on her back at the nape of her
neck, sending a shiver down her spine.

"You ok?" he asked, the concern for
her was evident in his tone.

Emily leaned her head to the side,
resting it against Matt's arm, "yeah, I just had crummy day
that's all."

Matt knew that she'd been a little
out of it most of the day, but between her classes and his weapons
recertification they'd only seen each other once from across the
bullpen.

"I could tell," Matt nodded. "I
brought some 'Chunky Monkey' to cheer you up," he said with a
boyish grin as he handed her the pint and a spoon.

She looked up at him with appreciation,
"thank you, but the Pillsbury dough boy beat you to it." Em
pulled the half-eaten, family sized pack of chocolate chip cookie
dough from under her blanket.

Matt couldn't help but laugh, "good,
that means more for me!"

"I don't know… It won't take me
long to finish this, then I'll give you a hand with that ice
cream."

"Are you serious Em? Your day
couldn't have been that bad."

Emily dug out a large spoonful of raw
dough and took a bite, "oh, but it was."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Are you sure you wanna listen?"

Matt moved around the chair and sat on
the edge of the sofa facing his girlfriend, "that's what I'm
here for."

"Have you ever had one of those days
where nothing seems to go as planned? When you wish that you could
hit a rewind button and start everything over?"

"No, not recently anyhow," Matt
reached out and placed his hand on Emily thigh, "I've been lucky
enough to spend the last year and a half with you. Why would I want
to go back and change that?"

Emily smiled as the color rose in her
cheeks, she took hold of Matt's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
She knew it had been a rhetorical question, but fell even deeper in
love with him for the statement.

The couple had been together for just
under a year, having overcome multiple personal and professional
battles. Their relationship had recently taken a more serious turn
after a short break-up nearly ended their partnership completely. The
brief separation only made their bond stronger, 'If we're gonna
do this, then we're gonna do it,' Emily had reminded Matt of a
previous conversation. That's exactly how they moved forward,
hotels were the first thing to go, followed by most of their sneaking
around.

"Ok, here goes." Emily leaned back
in her chair. "First, I woke up this morning alone," she said
bluntly. "I know you had to leave early to meet Frank, but I still
missed you being there."

A boyish grinned crossed Matt's face,
"I missed you too," he leaned forward and kissed the woman loved.
"As much as I'd love to make up for this morning, I know that's
not the only reason you were in a bad mood."

"No, that was just the start of it,"
Emily let out a deep sigh as she thought about all the things that
had gone wrong throughout the day. "So, after waking up to a cold
and empty bed, I realized that my alarm hadn't gone off. I guess
there must have been a power surge of some kind because my clock was
wrong… and I was already forty-five minutes late. Part of which is
your fault for keeping me up last night."

Matt could tell by her tone that she
didn't really blame him for her tardiness, there was a hint of
approval in her words. He gave an innocent shrug and took a large
bite of his ice cream.

"Then," she continued, "thanks to
my stingy neighbors, I had to take a freezing cold shower." Matt
tried to stifle his laughter, "Em, honey, you should really think
about moving to a better apartment."

She just rolled her eyes, "I wish
could afford to even think about moving out of this place."

"You could always move in with me…"
Matt suggested before fully comprehending what he'd just asked.

"Are you…?"

"Yeah, I am."

Emily stared at her boyfriend in
disbelief, unsure if she'd really heard what he just said. Matt was
well know for his spur-of-the-moment decision making, but there was a
undeniable confidence in his voice that assured her of his
intentions.

"When can we start packing?" Emily
asked with a grin.

Unaware that he'd forgotten to
breathe, Matt exhaled deeply and smiled, "right now if you want
to."

"Can it wait until tomorrow? I still
have cookie dough left," Emily asked as she took another bite.

Matt laughed and shook his head at his
partner, "yeah, it can wait. Now, keep talking, I kinda like
playing the shrink."

"It just kept getting worse!" Emily
let out a frustrated sigh and continued, "after I thawed out from
my shower, I ran out the door as fast a possible, only half dressed
mind you."

Matt nearly choked on a walnut as
visions of his scantly clad girlfriend running through the Federal
Building invaded his mind. As she continued her story Matt shook the
thoughts out of his head.

"Well, I forgot the report I was up
half the night working on, so if I wasn't already going to get
chewed out for being late, I was definitely going to hear it from
Cheryl now."

"Oh come on Em, you know Cheryl
better than that."

"Yeah, well, she actually had a
meeting with the D.A. early this morning, so she didn't even notice
that I was missing."

"See, your day got better after all."

Emily shoveled a heaping spoonful of
cookie dough in her mouth, "not exactly. If my day had gotten any
better I wouldn't be sitting here stuffing my face full of carbs."
She shrugged, "I got lucky."

"You got lucky? Could you make sure
that I'm involved the next time that happens?"

"Matt" Emily whined. She picked a
chocolate chip out of the gooey batter and threw it towards her
boyfriend's head, hoping for a direct hit. Matt reacted quickly,
arching his neck forward he opened his mouth catching the morsel with
FBI trained efficiency.

"Thank you," Matt teased as he
chomped down on the semi-sweet candy. "Now, finish telling me about
your day. Your life is more interesting than cable."

Emily chose to ignore the witty remark,
she sank deeper into her chair, "the rest of the morning was ok,
aside from but my afternoon class was horrible. We started a new
seminar today, 'Crisis Intervention Through Active Listening',
well, let's just say that my students are not active listeners. One
guy actually fell asleep! Where does the FBI find these people?"

Matt slowly raised his hand to speak,
"in his defense, I think I fell asleep in the class too."

"You're really not helping!"

"Sorry. Although," he continued, in
a desperate recovery attempt, "there's no way I would have fallen
asleep if my instructor were even half as hot as you!"

Emily rolled her eyes, "gee thanks."

Matt took another bite of his ice cream
and winked at his girlfriend. He watched her intently as she bit down
the corner of her bottom lip, trying to keep from smiling at Matt's
flirtatiousness.

That lip was Matt's weakness and
Emily used it against him every chance she got. She knew the should
get anything she wanted out of him with such a tiny gesture. And at
that moment there was only one thing that she desired.

Emily rose from her seat slowly,
turning to face her boyfriend. She reached out to place the tip of
her finger on his jean covered knee and began tracing invisible
eights there. As she inched her way closer towards Matt she let her
fingers lead the way, having them walk their way up his thigh.

The young woman straddled her partner's
hips and allowed her petite body to nestle closely against his.
Placing a feather light kiss just below Matt's jaw, she let her
lips linger there for a brief moment to feel his the increase in his
heartbeat.

"Thank you," she said in a
seductive whisper.

A puzzled expression overtook Matt's
face, "what for?"

Emily closed her eyes and her mouth
descended towards her lover's.

"This."

As soon as Matt realized what was
happening it was too late. Emily had stripped the partially eaten
pint of ice cream from his hands, planted a chaste kiss on his cheek
and returned to her chair. He sat there in awe, only somewhat
embarrassed to have been played by his own girlfriend.

"That was cruel," Matt stated,
tugging on his jeans as he tried to discreetly reposition himself on
the sofa.

Emily dug a banana slice out of the
frozen treat and popped it into her mouth, "I know. I'll make it
up to you later."

"That would be appreciated."

She nodded in agreement. "First you
have to finish listening to me vent."

Matt groaned, "there's more? What
else could have happened to you today?"

"My ex showed up. Brian, the one I
told you about."

He thought back to a conversation
several months prior, "was he the crazy one that slept outside your
college dorm because you refused to marry him?"

"Uh huh."

"What did he want?"

Emily remained silent and took another
bite ice cream. She cleared her throat before speaking, "he asked
me to marry him again."

Matt lunged forward, hoping he'd
heard her wrong, "he what?"

"Oh yeah, you should have been there.
He cornered me in the lobby on the way back from lunch. I had to get
security to escort him from the building."

"You're probably lucky I wasn't
there…"

"Oh really? What would you have done
about it?"

Emily stopped eating what was left of
the ice cream and stared over at Matt while she licked the spoon
clean. She could see the thought in his eyes as he pondered his
response. Matt didn't speak, or move or even break eye contact for
what seemed like an eternity. Emily, completely unaware of the
reasoning behind her boyfriend's silence, continued their gaze.

Finally, Matt stood, turned away from
his partner and walked back in the direction he'd come from earlier
that night. The curious woman's eyes followed, but she didn't go
after him, knowing full well that he would return to her. She paid
close attention to the sounds coming from the kitchen, anxious to
know what was going on.

Emily set the almost empty cardboard
container on the floor beside her, focusing all she could on what
might be going on in the other room. She could barely make out the
rustle of Matt's leather jacket sliding across her dinning room
table, the zipper tapping against the glass. Then silence.

Suddenly he was behind her again, she
hadn't heard his footsteps approaching.

"I would have done this," Matt said
in a firm tone of voice.

He knelt down beside her, resting his
hand atop her on the armrest. Emily sucked in a deep disbelieving
breath.

"I was going to save this until next
month, for you birthday, but since you ask what I would I would have
done today had I been there… this is exactly it."

She tried to keep her emotions in
check, but Emily could feel a tear rolling down her cheek.

Unable to restrain her excitement any
longer the young woman wrapped her arms around the man loved. "Yes!"
She exclaimed, climbing over the arm of the chair and into his
embrace. Matt slid the thin ring on the hand of his future wife.
Their lips met in a feverish hurry, not wanting to waste another
moment apart. He brushed a strand of hair to the side as his finger
tangled in her curly brunette locks.

Never losing contact with her mouth,
Matt reached around Emily's waist and lifted her enough to cradle
her legs in his other arm. As they made their way towards the small
apartment bedroom Emily reluctantly broke the magnetic force of their
lips. Sensing the hesitation, Matt set her down gently on the
carpeted floor.

"What's wrong?"

Emily shook her head and ran her hand
down Matt's chest, "nothing's wrong. Go ahead, I'll be right
there."

He kissed her tenderly on the forehead
and continued on into the bedroom. As soon as she could no longer be
seen in the narrow hallway, Emily darted back to her favorite chair.
She grabbed the spoon and remaining ice cream and hurried back to her
waiting fiancé. She'd made a promise to him not long ago and Emily
had every intention of returning the ice cream she'd stolen from
Matt.

The End.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.